STAROBIN

a Russian-Jewish name

As a child I was told that 'Starobin' was the name of a small Jewish shtetl (village) in Belorussia (White Russia) that was leveled and wiped off the map by the Nazis. I have never been able to find a pre-WWII map with the name, though my late father claimed to have seen one.

However, I did find the following quote on a page called Starr Family Tree:

Starobinsky/Starr family

According to Alexander Bider's A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire, the name Starobinskij was used in Gomel in the Chernigov region of Belorussia. It indicates an origin from the townlet of Starobin near Slutsk in Belorussia (80 miles south of Minsk). The name Starobin itself means One Hundred Rabbis. See Slutzk and Vicinity Memorial Book which includes Starobin. Nevertheless, there are still a few Jews living in Starobin.

Another page with a lot of Starobin information is Starobin, Slutsk uezd, Minsk gubernia, Belarus

Sometime in the future I hope to have more information about my branch of the family and it's history. Maybe even a family tree. But, in the meantime:

I am the son of Robert Joseph Starobin (married to Naomi Kaplan),
who was the son of David Starobin (married to Esther Bresloff),
who was the son of Robert Joseph Starobin.

My family has been lived in the New York metropolitan area since early in the twentieth century.

I have a brother, David Starobin (classical guitarist, Bridge Records) and a sister, Amy Starobin (Madison, WI).